The new Mayor of Makhado has a heart full of compassion for street children. “If I had one wish, it would be to see all the children in Makhado attending school, to see all school kids being removed from the streets and being well cared for,” the Mayor, Cllr Glory Mashaba, said in an interview on Friday before her inauguration. Cllr Mashaba enjoyed the years pursuing her career as a social worker. “I was inspired by my father. He was passionate about children and we had many children staying with us.” She was already 15 years old when she first discovered that all the many children in their home were not all her siblings! Baby Glory was born on 27 August, 1962, in the Makulele Village on the border of the Kruger National Park. Her first name, Tsakani, means “happy”. She was indeed a happy child among the many children in their home. When she was seven years old, her happiness was clouded for a while. “I was depressed, for in the process of forced removal, my closest friend died of pneumonia because they were left in an open veldt,” she remembered. Her family was removed to Nthlaveni and Mhinga. The young Glory started her schooling at Mhinga Primary School whereafter she proceeded to Lemana High School where she loved to participate in debate and was the youngest prefect in Standard 10. She was also a hostel prefect. Tsakani Glory graduated in Social Work at the University of the North in 1984. For the next 11 years, she pursued her dream to serve communities as a social worker, at Bushbuckridge, Malamulele and Elim Hospital. Cllr Mashaba’s political career got underway when she started to participate in leadership positions in the ANC in 1996. She was also active in the South African National Civic Organization. In 1996, she was appointed as community development officer at the provincial office in Polokwane and from 2000 she was a manager in the same department. At the first council meeting after the elections, Cllr Mashaba appeared in her traditional Shangaan attire. “I am confident that Councillor Mashaba will take the municipality somewhere; she has the capacity. I am happy and positive about the municipality,” the out-going mayor, Cllr Rhulani Nkuzana, told Zoutpansberger at the meeting. At the inauguration ceremony hosted at the show grounds, the first female mayor of Makhado said that she appreciated the fact that the ANC appointed 50% women to serve in her municipal council. Mashaba said that Council cannot continue to pay lip service to the voters and that the time for service delivery has come. She reminded councillors that they are the servants of the people and that service delivery must be visible to all. During the Friday afternoon interview Cllr, Mashaba appealed to the people of the Makhado Municipality to “support us in our endeavour to improve the quality of life of the people in the Makhado Municipality. We will embark on a programme to evaluate the services that we are providing as a way of coming up with a service delivery plan in line with the Batho Pele principles.”